Whatever it Takes
by Little.Miss.Xanda
Summary: Sometimes, you got involved in things bigger than yourself. This, well, this was one of those situations. Hannah would finish her mission because doing otherwise would damn everything they were fighting for. She would not fail her friends, her family. She was part of the Resistance and she would stand strong against the Dark, no matter what it took.


**Disclaimer**: Anything you recognize belongs to the incomparable J. K. Rowling. No money is being made from this.

**Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition – Season Seven – Round Seven**

**Captain for the Tutshill Tornados**

**Round 7**

Not My Department

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I know the teams are working super hard this season, and that's why the Kingsley Shacklebolt has extended an invitation for every player to take a tour of the of the Ministry. So, come along! Each department has a special treat set up in hopes of inspiring you!

**Captain:** Minister and Administration Offices: Write about someone in charge of something/someone

**Word count: 2436**

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**Whatever It Takes**

"For the record, I think this is a bad idea."

"So you've said, repeatedly," Hannah said, forging on regardless.

It wasn't that she didn't care about Justin's opinion; she did, deeply. They just didn't have any other options.

"Well, that just shows how bad of an idea I think it is," Justin whispered, even as he followed her.

She turned abruptly. "Then tell me what else to do! Give me any other option!" _Anything_, she almost begged. Anything that stopped her from feeling as if she was leading them to certain death.

Her back stiffened when Justin laid a hand on her shoulder. Then—feeling horrible as she spied the sadness that flashed in his eyes—she leaned forward, melting into the comfort he was always so willing to give her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "It was not my intention to upset you. I'm just… I'm tired."

She wrapped her arms around him, offering comfort in turn.

"I know." They were all tired, _exhausted_. She couldn't remember the last time she had slept through the night. "We have to do this. You know what's at stake." She felt him nod against her shoulder. She took one deep breath and pulled away. "We have to hurry. Only ten minutes left."

Justin nodded, and she turned around.

They couldn't fail. They _wouldn't _fail.

Her breath froze in her lungs. She struggled silently as a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her into an alcove.

"Let her go."

In the ten years she had known Justin, she had never heard him sound so deadly.

The hand holding her arm released her.

"Careful with where you point that."

Hannah slumped against the wall. "Theo," she whispered, at the same time as Justin cursed.

"Good way to give us a heart attack," Justin grumbled, lowering his wand, though not before conjuring a small ball of light to float between them.

Theo was quick to raise as many wards around them as he could. Hannah always marveled at the ease Theo had with wards. Theo was a prodigy, even Bill said so, and he was one of the best Ward Masters in ages. Unfortunately, the same marvel Hannah felt was shared by the Dark Lord.

Theo was a hot commodity; one the Dark Lord had been eager to acquire and mark.

"What are you doing here?" Theo snarled as soon as they were secure.

"We had no choice!" Justin replied.

Hannah's lips twitched—Justin's affronted expression was one she adored. She would never say it to his face, but it was utterly charming.

Theo snorted. "No choice? No choice but to infiltrate one of His strongholds?" Theo shook his head.

"It's here," Hannah said, stepping away from the wall. She caught Theo's bright gray eyes, the only thing that betrayed his surprise.

"Are you sure?" Theo whispered, stepping back. "I heard nothing. There were no changes, nothing that even hinted at it. I would have told the Resistance if there was! I would have managed to send a message to Harry!"

Hannah reached forward, gently gripping his shoulder. "We know. Harry was hesitant to act since we'd heard no word from you. I convinced him. We can't risk it being true and not act."

"If it's true… it's the end."

Hannah shivered at Justin's words.

The end.

After five years of war, an ending to it seemed as ethereal as a dream. Even more fragile than that, if she was being honest with herself. They'd had that hope ripped from them far too often over the last few years to dare dream about it.

Every time they pieced together the shattered remains of their hope, more and more pieces ended up missing. Bigger and bigger holes were left behind with every failed mission, every death. And every time they build themselves back up—a little more broken, a little less bright—they lost a little more of themselves.

Even so, they kept going.

They had to.

"The end," Theo whispered, a bright spark in his eyes that was absent most of the time he was able to get away to give Harry a report. Theo straightened. "Alright. I know this manor from top to bottom. I'll guide you. Do you know where it is?"

Hannah shook her head. "Susan and Parvati are outside the wards, pinpointing its location."

"How?" Theo asked.

Justin grinned, boyish and charming and carefree—as if he had never been touched by war and blood and death.

"Luna," he said. "She was able to create an artifact. It can locate similar energy. It has a very small range, but if we have a location, like a building, it can narrow down where it's emitting from. It's why we're sure it's here. As soon as we were close enough, it started reacting."

"Then why didn't you bring down the whole thing!" Theo clenched his hands at his side, but Hannah could still see the fine trembling going over his body.

"You know why," she said softly. "This is our chance. We can't risk _him_ suspecting anything. Bill made a small opening in the wards. Just enough for two people to come through. After you and Bill, I'm the best at warding and Justin… well, he's stubborn and wouldn't stay behind." She expertly ignored Justin's grumbling. "We need to get here." She pulled out a ward map from her pocket, showing Theo the place Bill had left a small opening in the wards, enough for them to communicate with the team outside.

Theo hummed, looking over the coordinates. "The best way to reach it is through the dungeons." He grimaced. "They… they're having fun with the prisoners right now."

Hannah closed her eyes.

"Anyone we know?" Justin asked what she was too afraid to.

Theo's look darkened. "They have a few Resistance members. Cho saw me. I told her I could create a distraction, let her and a few others escape." Theo looked away from them. "She refused."

"Of course, she did," Hannah said.

None of them would have taken that offer. Theo's position as their spy was something they would never risk. They had so few in the Death Eaters' ranks. Every single one of the Resistance members would rather die than turn them in, of that Hannah was sure.

"They killed her!" Theo snarled, eyes wide. "Right in front of me." He dropped his head, hiding the tears that had gathered at the corner of his eyes. "She smiled at me."

"Theo…" Hannah pulled him into a hug, holding on tighter as he stiffened at her touch.

What else could she do? What else could she say?

Cho had been missing for almost a week. They had all lost hope of finding her alive.

"Who else?" Justin asked, wrapping his long arms around them.

"Hestia Jones, Roger Davies, Cormac McLaggen, and Dennis Creevey."

"Oh Merlin." Hannah shuddered. Roger and Cormac had been missing for two months. She couldn't even imagine how much they had suffered all this time. "So many."

"How are they?" Justin asked, and Hannah dreaded the answer.

"How do you think?" Theo clenched his fists. "They like their Muggle toys, and the few Muggleborns they are able to catch. But Resistance members?" Theo shivered. "You don't want to know."

Hannah's wand vibrated, startling her. "We have five minutes. If we don't make it, the others will assume we were captured and leave."

"We have to go through the dungeons." Theo straightened his back. "There are at least seven down there. Another ten through the manor. Most of them will be in the upper levels." Theo brought down the wards. "Follow me."

They stuck to the shadows, as silently as possible making their way to the meeting point. Hannah's steps faltered the closer they got to the dungeons. She could already hear the screams.

Justin placed his hand on her lower back, guiding her forward, and she moved. She couldn't falter. She wouldn't fail them.

Theo stopped just before entering the dungeons.

He held up three fingers.

Then lowered one.

Then another.

Hannah took a deep breath, and between one second and the next, Theo slammed the door open. The banging against the wall was drowned out by the screams. The closer Death Eaters had no time to react.

They were dead before they hit the floor.

Hannah heard the door close behind them, but she paid it no mind. She was already moving further down the dungeon.

"Traitor!"

She looked up in time to see Theo slam the Death Eater against a wall.

"Proudly!" Theo snarled.

"No time to chit-chat!" Justin shouted from the back, taking out two Death Eaters.

Theo huffed, and Hannah looked away as he sliced the Death Eater's throat.

"Behind you!"

Hannah turned, instinctively trusting the voice.

"_Defodio_!"

She might not have an arsenal of Dark curses, but she was creative with what she knew. The Death Eater gurgled, his hands going to the hole in his stomach. He toppled over, blood quickly forming a puddle around him.

Hannah's heart shattered. This war was killing her in ways she hadn't thought possible.

"Clear," Theo said, and Hannah's shoulders slumped.

"Dennis." Justin was reaching inside the cell, clasping hands with Dennis. "Merlin, they did a number on you."

Dennis chuckled, the sound rasping and grating. "Well, a Mudblood and a Resistance member, I was a true celebrity around here."

"It didn't help that you provoked them every chance you had," Theo said.

Hannah could hear his eye-roll but after years of friendship, she could make out the undeniably fond undertone to his words.

"What are you doing here?" Hestia asked, pulling herself up against the cell bars. She looked as if a strong breeze would knock her over. Open lacerations marred most of her skin, and Hannah wondered how Hestia still had the strength to stand tall when most others would have been broken beyond recognition.

Hannah's wand vibrated again, and she cursed. "It's too late. We have to reach them." She pulled out the ward map. "Theo, we need to be able to contact them. Can you tweak the wards?"

Theo grimaced. "_He_'ll know we did it."

Hannah looked at Justin, then looked around, eyes resting on every member of the Resistance—her friends, her _family_.

"Do it."

Theo nodded. Before their eyes, he brought forth the matrix of the wards. They shimmered in all the colors of the rainbow, gently ebbing back and forth.

"We won't have much time," he warned them.

"We'll make do."

Justin, ever the optimist. She didn't know how she would have made it through these years without him.

The matrix flared a violent red, and Hannah felt the wards around them surge.

"The Death Eaters in the manor will have felt something's up with the wards. They'll investigate. Keep an eye on the door," Theo told them.

Justin nodded, moving a little further up the hallway.

"How will you contact them?"

Hannah pulled out a mirror and Theo's lips twitched.

"Should have guessed." He shook his head. "Harry's really fond of those."

Hannah gave an answering smile back. "Parvati!" she called, praying to anyone willing to listen that they hadn't already left.

"Hannah!" Parvati appeared in her mirror, and Hannah staggered in sheer relief. "What happened? We were getting ready to leave when the wards flared."

"We didn't make it to the meeting point. Theo had to tweak the wards."

"Theo's there?"

Harry appeared in the mirror, and Hannah frowned.

"You're not supposed to be here!"

Harry scowled at her. "Don't you start. I've already had to hear it from these ones here. As I told them, I need to be here. If this is it..."

Hannah sighed, understanding where he was coming from, even if she didn't like it.

"Theo," Harry called, and Theo stepped forward. "How heavily is the seventh floor protected?"

Theo frowned. "There's no seventh floor."

Susan appeared at Harry's side.

"According to this, there is. It's where it's located." She held up a pair of small dowsing rods. They were glowing a bright gold, magic flowing between them. She placed them on a blank piece of parchment, and the magic surged down, coordinates appearing on the parchment. "See here?" Susan pointed at some numbers. "It's the altitude. The sixth floor is just below these. So it must be on the seventh floor."

Theo shook his head. "There's no seventh floor. There never was."

"_Fidelius_," Roger croaked from the back of the cell, where he was leaning against a barely conscious Cormac.

Harry cursed, looking away, at the same time as Theo screamed, clutching his arm.

"He's coming," Theo told them, panting and leaning against the wall. "He's angry."

Harry's panicked face took up the whole mirror. "Get out of there!" he told them. "Break through the wards if you need to. We'll stage it as if we've organized a rescue mission. Hurry!"

Hannah didn't move. Her heart was beating so fast the noise it made drowned out everything else.

Fidelius. It was under a Fidelius charm. They knew where it was, but they would never reach it. This war… it would never end.

"Hannah!"

Her head snapped up, eyes locking with Justin's warm brown ones. She shook her head, and Justin stopped trying to get her to move.

"It's here," she said, looking at Harry. "This is our chance."

"We'll have other chances! Get out!"

She shook her head again, looking at Theo and Justin—standing strong and unwavering at her side—then at her fellow members of the Resistance who had suffered horrors locked away in these dungeons.

The wards shuddered around them.

"He's locking down the wards," Theo told them, eyeing the matrix.

"Hannah!" Harry cried again.

"It's here," she repeated.

Justin wrapped an arm around her waist, leaning into her. "Whatever it takes," he said, the whispered words echoing in the dungeons.

Harry's eyes widened. "No!"

Hannah smiled at him and looked around at her family. Theo nodded, clasping a firm hand on her shoulder, while the others smiled at her—broken and bitter and brittle—and Hannah's heart broke all over again for what she was about to do, for everything they had given and lost and would never have the chance to experience.

"Whatever it takes," they echoed back, and the shattered pieces of her heart burst with love for these people that meant _everything_ to her.

She raised her wand, dropping the mirror. "_Fiendfyre_!"

As the fiery beasts lay waste to their surroundings and Hannah felt her death approaching, she smiled, for she could hear the shrieking of Voldemort's last Horcrux.

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**A.N.**: I wanna thank my team for betaing. You're all awesome.


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